Mark

Oldmate near Meeniyan, 

helping with the awning:

oldmate Mark,

with the rooftop tent

and plans to complete the lap.

 

That was me

some years ago. 

 

Mark, with the dry bag in the racks,

across the months before we met,

have you felt

like I felt back then?

Did you witness God at Nandroya Falls?

Did you marvel at Cable Beach?

Were you lonely at Derby? 

Have you longed for that girl? Ah, that girl. 

Perhaps you thought you’d bring her along 

some day. 

 

Mark,

lifting the bar at the front as I fix the sides,

thanks Mark. 

 

Mark, with time to spare to help a bloke,

did you think, 

as you scanned a border town, 

on love and

on absurdity? 

Did you read One Hundred Years of Solitude

whilst others went to work? 

 

Mark,

I’ll see you again in several years

in another version of here:

me still you and you still me

to the tune of the oldmate’s anthem,

where it all means nothing, Mark.

And yet it does mean something, too, 

doesn’t it?